Indonesia to free Bali Nine drug smuggler Renae Lawrence: official

Convicted Australian drug smuggler Renae Lawrence (bottom C-black top) participates with other prisoners as they climb a pole during official ceremonies and games marking Indonesia’s 68th Independence Day at Kerobokan Prison on August 17, 2013. Lawrence was since transferred to the island’s Bangli Prison in 2014. Photo: Sonny Tumbelaka/AFP

The only female member of the “Bali Nine” heroin-trafficking gang will be freed from an Indonesian prison next week, a corrections official said Monday, after serving 13 years in a case that caused a diplomatic furore.

Australian Renae Lawrence, 41, was arrested in 2005 after she was caught with 2.6 kilograms (5.7 pounds) of heroin strapped to her body as she tried to fly out of the international airport on the holiday island of Bali.

Lawrence was sentenced to life imprisonment, but her sentence was later reduced to 20 years and then further reduced due to good behaviour.

“She will be released on November 21,” Made Suwendra, head of the Bangli prison on Bali where Lawrence is incarcerated, told AFP.

“(Lawrence) is a nice person. Accommodating, easy to work with and be friends with. There have been no problems since she’s been here.”

It is likely that Lawrence will be deported shortly after her prison release. She will be the only member of the Bali Nine to win their freedom so far.

Gang ringleaders Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan were executed by firing squad in 2015, sparking a diplomatic row between Australia and Indonesia, which has some of the world’s strictest drug laws including the death penalty.

Some critics have lashed out at the Australian police for tipping off their Indonesian counterparts about the gang and putting its members at risk of execution in Indonesia.

High-profile cases like that of Australian Schapelle Corby, who spent more than nine years behind bars for smuggling marijuana into Bali, have stoked concern that Indonesia is becoming a destination for trafficked drugs.